No more Band-aids or just talking about justice

After being exposed to ways that Christians are beginning to address deep issues of humanity, I chase after learning and grasping better ideas and stories of how people have helped solve simple basic deep issues that are only known by people that understand their local context.

When I say local context, I am usually discussing within a extremely small vicinity of a half mile, or mile radius. Sometimes even within a quarter mile.

I just read about a story of mountain folks in Rich Christians In an Age of Hunger, by, Ronald Sider. The story is about a small village at the base of a mountain that has winding, slippery roads with hairpin turns without guard rails. Instead of the government, or outsiders intervening, a group of Christians in the village pulled together to run an ambulance service that would rush to the injured and take them to the hospital. This service was also purely voluntarily run. I thought this was an amazing notion of an innovative way for the church to meet the needs of humanity! I am sure this took a lot of hard work, and people gave to an extent to which it hurt.

Which, this was a great act of service, but there is more to be done. There is more to the story. One day a visitor questioned why they haven’t put in a tunnel, or close the road. One possible reason why they didn’t do either because the road had been there a long time, and that the mayor would not approve. He wouldn’t want to approve because he owned a restaurant, and service station halfway up the mountain. The Christians of the Volunteer Ambulance service were shocked, and probably didn’t think twice about forsaking the restaurant and service station for the sake of others.

We often want to be ignorant of societal structures that we subtly benefit from. In the case of the Volunteer Ambulance folks they probably didn’t think twice about it being a problem because it has been apart of their lives for so long that it was accepted and ok. They were not awakened to the injustice of the situation, they subtly bought into the lie. It often takes outsiders to see issues, but it is from within that can make the change possible. If the road had changed since that time, then this would be a great case of not just teaching a man how to fish, but teaching him how to restock the pond.

Lets think a little bit harder, and be ok with tough questions and persecution!

Property and Wealth is not evil! Starving is!

In an age of materialism, and a fairly dominant but fading North American culture I often have forgotten or misunderstood why the abundance of Property and Wealth disturbs me.

God has made all things good, so there’s nothing wrong with prosperity, wealth and materials correct? Correct.

I feel like my internal struggle has been to reduce for the sake of simplicity, less possessions to worry about, more money to send out. This was my biblical theological grasp of why I should have less. This doesn’t apply very easily. I am working on another house, that is mine, I have use of 3 means of transportation, could this really be my belief? It isn’t really and it has been great to put together the words and ideology to convey what and why my heart believes.

My real motivation that I have picked up not from within Christendom is that I must do all possible to figure out how to spread my wealth/possessions to other people. Christ has called us to love Him, and to Love others. I think it is easy for us to view food, clothes, and property as evil things. This is the way most probably think, when talking about possessions, and get really defensive. It is not that things are evil, but it is because people are starving. Some of us have no clue what that really looks like, and have no idea how fortunate we are to even have the opportunity of welfare from our government. In the Old Testament biblical culture is all about community and caring for one another, it is very much of the same way in the New Testament. OT examples, Jubilee, Sabbatical Year. NT examples collection of money to spread to other churches that are hurting (Gal 2:10) (Rom.15:22-28). So if you have been blessed, do not give up on finding ways to give back, even in the littlest ways. We have been called to share the wealth, that many of us can easily attain in America.

Americans consume most of the worlds natural resources, how selfish is that? Do we really attempt to share, give, or spread out our wealth so that others may get to enjoy even some of the simplest things in life such as adequate nutritional diets of protein and carbohydrates. Are we willing to share just so that little kids can have brains and bodies that can actually develop into well thinking adults? When kids are between 0-2 many are malnourished and are not able to have good brain development because their nutritional needs are not met. By not sharing we are somewhat purposely creating adults that will not be able to function at their fullest potential. We need band-aids and doctors to figure out what’s wrong not ignorance.

If you have always visited nice places for vacations, please go visit some slums. Whether stateside or overseas. There probably are some just on the other side of town. Then think of what its like when there are no resources, or strong buildings.

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Tears washed her dark, sunken eye sockets as she spoke: “ i feel so sad when my children cry at night because they have no food. I know my life will never change. What can I do to solve my problems? I am so worried about the future of my children. I want them to goto school but how can we afford it? I am sick most of the time, but I can;t got to the doctor because each visit costs two pesos [28 cents] and medicine is extra. What else can I do?” She broke down into quiet sobbing.
~ Stan Mooneyham (Mooneyham, Hungry World, pp. 38-39)

The father makes 70 cents on a good day as an ICE vendor, She will stay up all night to make coconut candy to sell, which will make her 40 cents for her toil.

1977 still relevant today

From Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, by Ronald Sider.

“ In an Age of Hunger most Christians (regardless of theological labels) will be severely tempted to succumb to the liberal heresy of the following current cultural and societal values rather than biblical truth. Society will offer demonically convincing justification for enjoying our affluence and forgetting about a billion hungry neighbors.
        But if the Christ of Scripture is our Lord, then we will refuse to be squeezed into the mold of our affluent, sinful culture. In an Age of Hunger Christians of necessity must be radical nonconformists. But nonconformity is painful. Only if we are thoroughly grounded in the scriptural view of possessions, wealth and poverty will we be capable of living an obedient lifestyle. ”